£2m chemotherapy suite to be built at Stafford's County Hospital

The move is part of controversial changes which will see more seriously ill patients who need a hospital stay having to travel to Stoke or Wolverhampton for treatment.

Eight beds at Stafford's haematology ward currently being used for the purpose are to close due to a lack of specialist staff and the unlikelihood of recruiting any more. Instead five beds will move to the Royal Stoke Hospital and three to New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton.

The cost of replacing beds at the County Hospital would have been £900,000 with a further £660,000 spent on staffing which bosses at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust ruled was not sustainable.

Instead the new chemotherapy suite, due to open next summer, will cater for day cases. A similar unit at Cannock Chase Hospital, catering for up to 20 patients at a time, is due to open within weeks.

Seriously ill patients, such as those with leukaemia, myeloma and lymphoma, will be treated in larger, specialist wards at either Wolverhampton or Stoke.

Professor Gavin Russell, medical director of strategy planning at the UHNM, said: "We are talking about very sick patients and very small numbers. We are not removing cancer services."

It is estimated the move will affect less than one patient a day. County Hospital had around 130 elective admissions and 60 non-elective admissions in 2014-15.

Professor Russell said the new County Hospital chemotherapy suite would replace 'very tired' existing facilities.

The plans for the haematology and oncology services at County Hospital form part of the Trust Special Administrator recommendations.

An additional £1.8m investment has been made at Royal Stoke University Hospital to provide further inpatient beds.

The County Hospital unit will provide treatment areas for up to 18 patients at a time, 16 in an open-plan area and two single rooms with ensuite facilities.

It will be provided within the former Shugborough Ward on the ground floor, close to the main entrance.

Work is planned to start in January next year with the building programme due to be completed in June or July.

Hospital campaigner Cheryl Porter welcomed the modern new facilities but said she was worried about the pressure that the closure of the inpatient beds would place on families who will have to travel to Wolverhampton or Stoke for treatment.

She said: "Patients using these cancer and haematology services are seriously ill, many of them are elderly, and some need quite lengthy hospital stays" she said.

"The last thing they need is to be at a distance from their families."